Great River Energy purchases output of North Dakota wind farm
Ashtabula II will provide 51 megawatts of renewable energyMaple Grove, Minn. – On April 23, Great River Energy signed a 30-year power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy Resources to purchase 51 megawatts (MW) of output from the Ashtabula II Wind Energy Center in eastern North Dakota.
Located in Griggs and Steele counties, the Ashtabula II Wind Energy Center consists of 80 1.5-MW GE XLE turbines for a nameplate capacity of 120 MW, of which Great River Energy will purchase 51 MW of output. The wind farm originally reached commercial operation in November 2009; Great River Energy will begin receiving power from the facility in August.
“Minnesota has an ambitious renewable energy standard that requires electric utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2025,” said Mark Fagan, Great River Energy's manager of resource planning. "The addition of the output from the Ashtabula II Wind Energy Center brings us one small step closer to that goal.”
This is Great River Energy’s first wind generation purchase in North Dakota, which has greater wind generation potential than any other state.
About Great River EnergyGreat River Energy is a not-for-profit cooperative which provides wholesale electric service to 28 distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Those member cooperatives distribute electricity to more than 639,000 member consumers – or about 1.7 million people. With $3 billion in assets, Great River Energy is the second largest electric power supplier in Minnesota and one of the largest generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives in the United States. Great River Energy’s member cooperatives range from those in the outer-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities to the Arrowhead region of Minnesota to the farmland of southwestern Minnesota. Great River Energy’s largest distribution cooperative serves more than 120,000 member-consumers; the smallest serves about 2,400. For more information, visit www.GreatRiverEnergy.com.
About NextEra Energy Resources
NextEra Energy Resources is a clean energy leader and one of the largest competitive energy suppliers in North America. A subsidiary of Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL Group (NYSE: FPL), NextEra Energy Resources is the largest generator in North America of renewable energy from the wind and sun. It operates clean, emissions-free nuclear power generation facilities in New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin as part of the FPL Group nuclear fleet, which is the third largest in the United States. FPL Group had 2009 revenues of more than $15 billion, nearly 43,000 megawatts of generating capacity, and more than 15,000 employees in 28 states and Canada. For more information, visit www.NextEraEnergyResources.com
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Contact:Dan Becchetti
763-445-5706
